>Which games do you use as reference for "Contemporary shooters", and did you actually play them? > A pattern I see each time there are discussions about games

>Which games do you use as reference for "Contemporary shooters", and did you actually play them? > A pattern I see each time there are discussions about games, is to compare games in the past, actually played, with contemporary games, as observed in reviews or youtube videos (which, additionally, biases towards AAA-games, since they have more coverage). +1 to that. A lot of AAA games are designed with every moment being a handcrafted experience. That is, some sort of scripted thing is happening that couldn't happen organically by normal mechanics. Older AAA titles tended to just produce a solid set of mechanics and just let them speak for themselves. But there's plenty of good stuff that still leans into that approach.